As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my resolutions for 2007 didn't go so well. Nonetheless, I have an even longer list of resolutions for 2008. Some are business-related, and others are concerning my personal and family life.

Business first, of course:

1. To dedicate the first hour of each workday to my own projects, with the larger goal of completing a novel and two ebooks within the course of the year.

2. To finish and launch my long-overdue website updates.

3. To increase my annual income by a third.

My personal goals for 2008:

4. To pay off 75 percent of my credit card debt.

5. To keep in better touch with my friends, especially those I neglected in 2007.

6. To get pregnant! (Yep, we've decided it's time to expand our menagerie... er... family.)

What are your resolutions? If you would like to share, please feel free to comment with your resolutions or a link to your own blog post on the subject.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Labels: goals, holidays

Deb Ng posted today about her goals for 2008. In her post, she mentioned that she met her goal of increasing her income by $10,000 in 2007.

Unfortunately, I haven't been as successful in my goals for 2007. Here they were:

1. To revise my NaNoWriMo novel and get it ready for submitting

2. To submit my NaNoWriMo novel to at least one publisher during 2007

3. To start work on my next novel

4. To double my freelance income in 2007

The only one of these goals that I have achieved is number 3, starting work on my next novel — if you consider a detailed outline to be "starting work."

Although I didn't double my income in 2007, by the end of the year I estimate I will have succeeded in increasing it by 50 percent. I am disappointed that I can't say "I did it!" — but I guess it's not a bad achievement, particularly for my second year of full-time freelancing.

However, I also somewhat achieved this goal in another way. In my post, I commented that part of the reason for this goal was so that I could afford to stable my horse in town. While I didn't manage to double my income, I did still manage to bring Panama out here!

I haven't yet decided on all of my goals for 2008, so those will come in a later post.

Labels: editing, freelancing, goals, holidays, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

Michael may have found a way to get me on an earlier schedule: getting me up for a morning walk with the dogs. Both Thursday and Friday of last week, I got up at 7:00 AM (a virtual miracle for me) to walk the dogs with him. Both mornings, we left the house just a few minutes after 7, stopped at Starbucks (coffee for Michael and chai for me), and walked the dogs at our local park. We got back home around 8:00 both times, and Michael finished getting ready and left for work.

The whole thing was a major change for me, but quite a successful change. Basically, it was like adding four hours to my day: because the walk did such a good job of waking me up, I was getting away with sleeping six hours instead of 10 (I've been sleeping through my alarms again lately). I didn't feel very tired during the day, perhaps because of the walk; and when I did, I was able to quickly feel better just by getting up and moving around (also unusual for me).

I'm hoping to keep this schedule up, especially because right now is very busy and I could use the extra hours. Besides that, I feel noticeably better starting off my day with an early morning walk!

Labels: freelancing, goals, Michael

I spent several hours this morning and afternoon pruning the lilac bushes that surround our yard. They create a really great privacy screen, especially on the south border of our yard, where the fence is just a low picket fence. However, the bushes on that side are probably thirty years old (at least), and have rarely been pruned, if ever. The result is a tangled mass of overgrown lilacs -- pretty in summer, because they leaf out so thickly, but quite ugly for the rest of the year.

I meant to prune the lilacs last year, but I didn't get around to it early on, except for one lone bush. Naturally, that bush looks the prettiest and bore the most flowers this year. So I'm trying to be a good little gardener this year and take care of our pretty lilacs. The trick is to prune them around the right time -- lilacs need to be pruned right after the flowers bloom, because the plant starts making next years blooms almost right away. Our lilacs finished blooming only a week or two ago, so it's now or never.

As I was pruning (with gusto, I might add -- I was never big on working in the yard, but oddly enough, I enjoyed this), I started thinking about my work. I've been really dragging lately, and it seems I have more ideas for books (fiction and nonfiction) than ever. Since I started freelancing, I've been saying to myself, "When I have more time I'll work on my stories," or other promises along those lines. Of course, I never seem to have enough time, and except for NaNoWriMo last November, I haven't made time, either.

The last couple of days, I've been kind of toying with the idea of cutting back some of my freelance work and devoting more time to writing stories, novels, and nonfiction books. And of course, as an avid reader and writer who thinks in metaphors (don't we all?), I started thinking about how pruning the lilacs was kind of like what I want to do with my business. I'd like to move on to higher-paying work, so that I can spend less time doing it and devote the extra time to other types of writing. I have a few regular clients that I'm not going to give up at this point, even though they pay me at "last year's rates," but I'm not going to take on any more at those levels.

I've also thought about how to work a little fiction- or book-writing into my regular work day. The usual idea -- making myself do the paying work first, and doing the fun stuff if I have time at the end of the day -- isn't going to work for me, because it's just likely to make me start staying up later and later every night. Instead, I think I'm going to give myself a certain block of time every morning to work on my current story or book project. The reason I think this will work better is because I tend to diddle around for an hour or two, blogging or checking up on my favorite blogs to "warm up" before I get to work. My idea is to replace that time with writing the stuff that really gets my fingers flying -- it should be a more effective way to warm up, anyway.

Of course, I don't feel I'm quite ready to start that schedule. Right now I have a few projects that I need to get out pronto -- I've had a hard time being productive since we got back from the honeymoon, and a few things have piled up. Besides, the very first thing I want to do is to revise my NaNo novel, and I want to take Stephen King's advice and read over it all in one day.

Once I get going with the new schedule, I have a few projects in mind. One is an ebook, another a chick lit type of novel, not to mention a handful or so of other ideas in the works. I'll announce my little projects as I start on each.

Wish me luck with my "pruning" and rejuvenation!

Labels: burnout, business, clients, ebooks, freelancing, goals, home sweet home, miscellaneous, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing

Those of you who read my blog regularly may remember that I am a type 1 diabetic. Anyway, most of the time I don't mind -- taking a shot with every meal or snack is so normal to me that sometimes I catch myself being surprised when characters in movies that I identify with don't take a shot with their meal. (Funny, huh?) There are times when I consciously think, Wow, hey, yeah... I'm diabetic!!!

Yesterday was not one of those times where I forget or don't mind being diabetic. I struggled with mild lows all day -- between every meal or snack, actually. Then, a few hours after dinner, I started crashing and didn't recognize the symptoms. I just thought I didn't feel well from the wine I had with dinner. (Sometimes wine doesn't sit well with me.) After Michael suggested several times that I check my blood sugar, I finally took his advice... and discovered my blood sugar was well below the crashing point.

It took nearly an hour before my blood sugar climbed back to a level where I could think straight again. I was out of glucose pills, the fast-acting chewable pills that I take when I crash. We didn't have any candy, either. So Michael spoon-fed me honey and opened a soda (which, unfortunately, had natural sugar -- so it wouldn't work as fast as, say, a Coke).

Even while Michael was pretty much shoveling honey into my mouth (I was too dazed to want to chew, let alone pick up, anything), my blood sugar kept dropping. It fell to probably my third-lowest reading ever before it started to come back up. When I finally regained the ability to think straight again, the past hour or so had become a blur -- like a dream that you only half-remember when you wake up. Needless to say, I didn't feel like working anymore (which I'd been intending to do).

The problem with days like yesterday is that it really screws with my work goals. When I have a low, it takes a long time to feel "normal" again, even after my blood sugar returns to a reasonable level. Usually, I feel tired afterward, maybe even a little disoriented depending on how badly I crashed.

Of course, the best thing is to minimize days like yesterday as much as possible. For a few days I'd been suspecting that my nighttime dose (I take a 24-hour insulin called Lantus) was too high, but so far I'd had no clear indication of it. My blood sugar has been a little difficult to control since we returned from our honeymoon, and I think it has something to do with the large amounts of food and exercise we were getting there -- any change in metabolism tends to affect the amount of insulin my body needs. When I took my nighttime dose of insulin last night (several hours after I crashed), I cut the dose back by a few units. I'll just have to monitor it closely over the next day or so and see if it is helping.

Today, unfortunately, I have a lot of catching up to do. Thanks to the combination of dryer problems and yesterday's blood sugar drama, I didn't get my priority assignments done as I had intended. If I am going to catch up in any reasonable amount of time, I need to buckle down and work pretty seriously.

Labels: diabetes, freelancing, goals, miscellaneous, personal

Last night -- Friday night -- I worked another all-nighter. From 1am to 8am, I worked on finishing the copy for a client's website. (Sadly, as a result I slept until 4pm -- goodness knows what this will do to my schedule.)

I've decided to take the weekend off -- something I haven't actually done in what feels like eons. Usually, if I'm not working all weekend I'm trying to find time to work all weekend. As productive as I have been recently -- increasing my billable work hours each week, completing the backlogged work I have been accumulating -- I feel I deserve a little break. (And no, it actually doesn't have anything to do with Easter being this weekend.)

Anyway, Monday will be here soon enough, so I'm off to read a little and enjoy my reprieve.

Labels: burnout, freelancing, goals, holidays, R and R

I suffered a relapse last night...er, this morning. I didn't get to bed until nearly 7:30am, and got up at 2pm. It was for a good cause, though -- I worked through the night in order to meet a deadline (and make several hundred dollars).

Apparently when I went to bed I was not able to add and subtract correctly, because I set my alarms for about noon, thinking that would enough sleep. Needless to say, it wasn't.

It seems that to meet a deadline (and still be able to enjoy my weekend) I've sacrificed my hard work so far to change my sleep schedule. I'm hoping that a little over seven hours' sleep won't be enough, and I'll still be tired tonight, but we'll see.

What have you sacrificed in order to meet deadlines? Click on the post title to comment and tell me about it!

Labels: deadlines, discussions, freelancing, goals

My Blogger account has had some problems for the last couple of days, so several of my posts didn't appear until today (finally!). Be sure to read everything and catch up!

I have a number of updates:

The Lieurance-King Article Challenge:

Yeah, that SO didn't happen. I've been too busy catching up on PAID work to write marketing articles. However, I hate not finishing things I set out to do, so I'm setting a challenge for myself: To finish my 30 articles by the end of April.

The Inkthinker Query Challenge:

I didn't send off any queries in February, but I did get a couple of in March. I'm up to a whopping 9 queries for the year. Obviously, I have a lot of catching up to do there, too.

My sleep schedule:

You'd be impressed -- when we were visiting Michael's family, I got up as early as 8:00 one day (that's 7:00 in Denver). It was solely to watch/help as Panama got his hooves trimmed, though. Without that kind of incentive here, I'm back to sleeping until 10:30-ish each day. That's not bad, though, considering that a month ago I was going to bed around 5am and sleeping until 1 or 2pm each day.

My work hours:

I never realized how few billable hours I worked every day until I started keeping track. Now that I am tracking it, though, I've been able to make a definite improvement. I'm still only getting about 6 billable hours a day, though; the rest is spent searching for jobs, corresponding with clients, blogging, networking, and doing a hundred other little time-consuming tasks.

My workload:

Going on vacation always screws me up; I always think I can work in the car, and it almost never happens. In other words, when I got back I had lots to do.

There's good news, though. After several crazy days of working almost non-stop since we got back, I have not just caught up on several assignments -- I have also prepared my estimated tax worksheet and figured out how much I need to make in the way of payments this year.

(That's my least favorite part of freelancing, by the way. I can handle filing my taxes, but I hate estimated tax payments. Probably has something to do with all of the dire warnings of the penalties you'll face if you mess up.)

I still have more work to catch up on, but the point is that the list is much shorter. I think that's partly because of my efforts to track my billable hours -- I'm working harder at this than I used to.

All in all, I think that's a positive list of updates. With the exception of those challenges I tried to take on (and failed miserably), I'm doing pretty well.

Labels: blogging, freelancing, goals, Inkthinker Query Challenge, Lieurance-King Article Challenge, marketing

Today Michael, one of his friends, and I went to the Benjamin Franklin exhibit, which is currently at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was quite interesting -- I knew from reading Franklin's autobiography in college that he was rather an amazing man, but I didn't know quite how amazing.

Interestingly, he was quite an entrepreneur, and had a good deal of advice for young aspiring businessmen. In particular, I thought his advice about using one's time wisely was of interest to writers. He also made a recommendation about going to bed early and getting up early, which made me wince.

Speaking of my goals and not wasting time, I need to report. I clocked 18 1/2 billable hours this week (i.e. not counting time spent searching for jobs and communicating with clients) -- about half of what I'd wanted. My saving grace was, as I noted earlier, that I was able to work much faster than I'd anticipating, meaning that I got a lot done anyway.

I should also note that one of the major successes of the week was that I discovered I get the most done if I start my day out by working, rather than trolling the markets first. I think that's probably why I was able to work more quickly this week -- I was using the time where I suffered the least interruptions to do my most serious work.

I won't be able to repeat the experiment next week, unfortunately, but I intend to the following week.

Labels: goals

I have been so busy trying to reach my goals for the week that I haven't been able to blog about my progress! It hasn't helped, either, that I have had to work on my car and deal with the drama surrounding my little blog lately.

Anyway, I am pathetically short of my goal -- for the first three days of the week, I have only clocked 11 1/2 hours. Part of this was because I had to take time out to work on my car Tuesday and yesterday.

Despite my lack of hours, though, I have been able to get a lot more done in that time that I would otherwise have expected. Part of it is because I have decided to shift my daily job search back to the end of the day, rather than doing it mid-afternoon. I may be missing out on some jobs that way, because of the rather fierce competition, but I've discovered that I get the most work done during that time (now that I'm not working late at night anymore).

Speaking of not working late at night anymore, I'm not waking up as early as I did on Monday, but my schedule is much better. I've been going to bed by 2am and waking up by 11am (it would be 10am if I would hear my freaking alarm). I've also been getting all my work done during the day and early evening, so that I can just read before I go to bed at night. It's only a few hours' difference, but it makes a big difference in the way I run my day.

Labels: freelancing, goals

It's a beautiful Monday, and everything is going my way.

1) I went to bed early last night, and got up early this morning. And although it took me a looooong time to fall asleep, getting up at 7:45 (yes, 7:45!) this morning wasn't that difficult. Of course, that might be because I had Michael to wake me up.

I'm hoping to go to bed early again tonight, and get myself onto a schedule where I get up around 9-9:30am every morning. It may not sound very ambitious, but when you figure that I was getting up around 1-2pm every day for quite a while there, it puts the whole thing in a new light!

2) I went to the junkyard, and they ordered me a new window for my car for not much more than the used one (that didn't fit). I'm supposed to pick up the new window later this afternoon.

And no, I didn't yell at them. They were too nice about it, and it seems the problem was on the end of the "tech" who pulled the window (rather than the guys at the counter). I might have yelled at the tech, had I had a chance...

I'm having problems with the fact that the new window is half of what it would have cost to get the window and have it installed by Elite Auto Glass. On one hand, I'm disappointed about having to pay more for this window than I'd planned on, but on the other hand I'm appalled that Elite is making $75 off of an install that probably takes them less than an hour to do.

Of course, truth be told, I'd always rather do the repair myself. That way I know it's done right. I don't want to have to wonder if some newbie window tech mixed up two screws, or cross-threaded something, or left a pile of broken glass inside my window. If I know I can do it myself, and do it right, why pay someone else good money to do it for me?

3) It's a beautiful day. Yes, this figures into my feelings of happiness this morning. Not only did I get up early and get the window problem taken care of, it's also warming up to be a 70-degree day. As I was letting myself into the house, the sun was warm, the birds were chirping, and all the various pets were happy to see me.

This is bliss.

Labels: goals, miscellaneous, plain ol' fun

I'm feeling distinctly cranky today. Just a lot of little stuff - my wedding dress not coming back right from the seamstress and having to go "under the knife" again, and not getting started on replacing my car window early enough today - piling up on top of my already-stressed shoulders.

On top of it all, I had a major setback in my bedtime/wake-up time progress. I had woken up at 11am the past few mornings, and all of a sudden - boom - an early Daylight Savings Time hits me, and I'm back to waking up at noon. Grrr.

The good news is, I guess, that I've been able to change my schedule. It's slow work, but the point is that it's working.

I'm also plugging away at the article marketing challenge. I have eight articles, most of which are live, but I've gotten behind this weekend.

Which brings me to my newest goal. I think I've mentioned that being a freelance writer isn't writing for 40 hours every week; there's a lot of job searching, administrative work, and other tasks that reduce the number of billable hours quite a bit. However, with a backlog of work remaining (and my motivation fully returned), it is my goal to clock 40 billable hours in the next week. That doesn't include job searching, personal blogging, etc. - just the time I spend working on paying projects.

I'll post daily on how I'm doing.

Labels: freelancing, goals, Lieurance-King Article Challenge, marketing

As I've already mentioned, I recently joined the Lieurance-King article challenge. Although I still haven't written or submitted any articles beyond my first two, I got an encouraging email today: my first article was accepted for publication on EzineArticles.com, and I have already been promoted to Expert Author status!

As for my other goals... Well, I was doing better about going to bed and getting up earlier. I was down to a 2am-3am bedtime, but then this morning I slept in horribly. I never even heard my alarm! Going to bed earlier may be more difficult tonight, but I'm determined not to lose ground so soon.

Labels: goals, Lieurance-King Article Challenge, marketing

Before I talk about my goals and what I've achieved, I need to talk about bookstores.

Visiting bookstores is one of my favorite pastimes. Michael and I often go to Barnes & Noble to drink coffee, eat pastries, and work on homework (Michael) or work (me).

Right now I'm at Tattered Cover. For those of you who don't know what Tattered Cover, it's an independent bookstore in Denver - quite famous for its success, actually. This indie bookstore now has three locations, each one of them unique. Long before B&N was around, everyone in town knew that if you needed a book, Tattered Cover was where you would find it.

We're at the Highlands Ranch location, which is much more suburbanite than the other two. The others are in old buildings (one a big downtown building, the other an old theater), and are sprinkled throughout with comfy old armchairs and sofas, nothing matching. Although this particular TC doesn't have the same eclectic feel of all the non-matching furniture, I have to say that right now the modern leather armchair/recliner I'm sitting in is quite comfortable. I have my feet up and my 3-pound-laptop on my lap, and I'm feeling quite cozy at the moment.

It's also rather nice that Tattered Cover provides free WiFi. Few places in Denver do.

As for my goals for this week...

Schedule changes:

I've succeeded somewhat in shifting my schedule. Last night I was finally able to get to bed a little earlier (3:30am), and I got up this morning before noon (!). Don't congratulate me yet, though - it remains to be seen if the trend will continue.

The problem is that I generally start feeling a little tired at some point between midnight and 2am, but by the time I finish up my work and read for a bit, I'm usually wide awake again. So I keep reading.

I am happy to report, though, that I am tired right now - and have been for the past couple hours. Maybe I will be able to head to bed even earlier tonight.

Writing work:

I've gotten some good work done this week, although not everything I would have like to have done. The biggest relief was finishing several minor projects that have been on my to-do list for quite some time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get much work done today. Wednesday was my mom's birthday, so I took her out for lunch today, and we spent the afternoon together. As a result, I will still be working this weekend, as per my usual.

Labels: freelancing, goals

I decided to participate in the Lieurance-King Article Challenge. I'm starting midway through (meaning I'll have to write very fast), but basically the idea is to write and submit 30 marketing articles by March 31st.

I have been wanting to try article marketing for a while now. I'm still not completely sold on the idea that it's going to provide enough marketing to make it worth writing for free, but I'm game to try it.

Besides, I write these types of articles for clients, so it makes sense that I should try doing it for myself, too. After all, if they're still hiring me, something about it must work, right?

Today I wrote two articles and submitted them to EzineArticles.com. I very quickly found that trying to keep the word count down (i.e. the 250-400 words that Kristen King recommends) is probably more time consuming than just writing the article. Perhaps I need to find topic ideas that will lend themselves better to shorter articles...

Anyways, I'll let you know when they my articles are live!

Labels: articles, goals, Internet tools, Lieurance-King Article Challenge, marketing, other writers

After writing my earlier post about deadlines, I started thinking about the term "blowing a deadline." I don't think it accurately describes my meaning, and probably not Kristen's, either, really.

"Blowing deadlines," in my opinion, is when you miss a deadline without the courtesy of informing your client that you're having a problem finishing the work on time. It is, essentially, not just blowing the deadline, but also blowing off the client.

I definitely don't do that - I'm always in touch with the client when I'm going to be late on something. Even if all I do is shoot off a quick email to let the client know - ahead of time - that I'm running behind, it makes a big difference.

So my revised list of lessons states:

1) Don't miss deadlines when you can avoid it.
2) Let your client know when you can't.
3) Appreciate the clients who are understanding when you do #2.

Labels: advice for writers, articles, blogging, clients, freelancing, goals, other writers

The end of the month is looming, and it seems deadlines are on everyone's mind. Harmony posted on Sunday about what she needed to do before the month ended, and Kristen King posted Monday about a blown deadline (and how upset she was about it). I have comments about both posts, and they (my comments) seemed kind of related, so I decided to talk about both tonight.

Not too long ago, I blogged about getting burned out. Then, more recently, I mentioned that I was starting to feel more like my old self. Unfortunately, that feeling comes and goes; I'm still struggling somewhat, so I have a backlog of work that I feel like I'll never be free of.

I have a confession to make, one that I suspect will make a whole bunch of guilty freelancers feel a little better: I miss deadlines. Not always - like I mentioned in a previous post, I tend to miss a deadline or two when I get burned out, which usually follows a period of insane amounts of work. Not all deadlines, thankfully - my brain seems to know the difference between deadlines for print publications (that have to go to the printer by a certain date), and deadlines for online venues (which are more flexible).

I mention this in response to Kristen's post, because she was clearly very freaked out about missing a deadline. The truth is, I haven't found missing a deadline here and there to be a major problem in my career (although, like I said, I have yet to miss any truly crucial deadlines). Most of my clients are wonderfully understanding and forgiving. They understand when I explain that I'm not feeling well, or that I'm running behind for some other reason.

There are three lessons to learn from this:

1) Don't miss deadlines when you can avoid it.
2) Don't worry about it too much when you can't.
3) Appreciate the clients that understand when you can't.

In response to Harmony's post... I have roughly 14 articles that I'd like to finish by the end of the week (not by the end of the month, thankfully!), as well as several (paid) blog posts. With a little luck, my productivity will hold and I'll accomplish all I set out to do...

Labels: advice for writers, articles, blogging, clients, freelancing, goals, other writers

It always starts so innocuously: I stay up late in a well-meaning effort to finish a project, and sleep late the next day as a result. Days pass, and bedtime inches back later and later... until, like right now, I'm going to bed at 5 or 5:30am on a nightly basis.

Yup, that's where my schedule is right now. Bedtime fluctuates between 4am and 5:30am, and my days start at anywhere from noon to (on really bad days) 2pm.

Some people would kill to be able to keep these hours, but I'm embarrassed and kind of sick of it. It is a lot easier to slip into this schedule than it is to reverse the process, though. Part of my problem is that staying up late has a genuine advantage: I work faster, harder, and better late at night, without any interruptions. The other part of my problem is that virtually nothing wakes me up. Multiple alarms, loud alarm, phone calls from my honey - none of it works anymore. I even bought one of those vintage double-bell alarm clocks, and within a week I had gotten used to the brrrrring of the alarm and was sleeping through it, too.

Just tonight, though, I made a decision - which is why I'm blogging about this in the first place. I am going to readjust my schedule. My goal is to shift it a few hours back, so that I'm getting up around 10am and going to bed around 2am (my favorite schedule). The problem is that, although working late into the night works really well for me, breaking my day up like that doesn't. By the time I'm done searching for jobs, sifting through email, and getting into "the zone," Michael's day is almost over - and of course, when he's home I want to spend time with him. Unfortunately, that means that when he goes to bed, I have to get warmed up all over again.

Sitting down at 11pm or midnight with a full "day's" work ahead of me sucks. I would much rather be settling in with a book to read for a few hours.

So, that's my goal. It'll be a tough one, and slow going, so I may not blog with my progress every day. Honestly, I'm not yet sure how I'm going to overcome my sleep-through-WWIII problem, particularly if sheer determination doesn't do the trick. But I'll keep you updated.

Labels: blogging, freelancing, goals, miscellaneous

I haven't written about it before now because I've been so caught up with my workload and email problems, but I'm participating in Kristen King's 2007 Inkthinker Query Challenge. The goal is to send off 120 queries or submissions in 2007 - 10 each month, basically. For a full-time freelancer that shouldn't be a problem, but it's more of a challenge than you would think - I don't consider responses to job ads to be queries, unless the "ad" is a call for submissions, and responses to job ads are the vast majority of what I send out.

So far this year, I have sent off five queries. The first one was a query to Write-From-Home.com, offering a reprint of my Writers Weekly article - and I'm happy to say that the query was successful. The next three queries were snail-mailed short story submissions, and the last one was a query for a real estate story. The last one didn't work out, as the publisher didn't want to guarantee anything and I'm too busy right now to write a very custom story and chance not getting paid for it, but hopefully at least one of my short stories will see publication this year.

I encourage everyone to sign up for the query challenge. It should be interesting, trying to come up with 115 more queries. Here are some of my ideas:

* More of my short stories: I have about half a dozen completed short stories that I would like to see published.

* My NaNoWriMo novel: Once I finish revising and editing my novel, I'll start making the rounds with it.

* Ebooks: I have ideas for several ebooks, and a couple of publishers in mind who might be interested in them.

* Articles: I have a whole favorites folder full of submission guidelines pages. My goal is to start going through that and querying for article assignments, in addition to all of the jobs ads I respond to on a daily basis.

This week's edition of Writers Weekly published an article on getting writing assignments that I think might be helpful for other interested in accepting the 2007 Inkthinker Query Challenge. The author has also published an ebook for writers who want to increase their business, which I just might buy.

Good luck to those of you who accept the challenge!

Labels: freelancing, goals, Inkthinker Query Challenge, job search, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, other writers, queries, shameless plugs

I am not entirely sure how it happened, but I suddenly have as much work as I had during my exceptionally busy period last summer. That is to say, I'll be working a lot this week, and likely won't have much time to blog regularly. I guess the fruits of one of my New Year's resolutions - to double my income in 2007 - are already paying off.

On top of the abnormally heavy workload, I have also been spending several afternoons each week scanning and organizing the family photos with my mom. Some of these photos are very old - in fact, more than just a few are nearly 100 years old, with a couple being even older - and they haven't all been very well cared for, so we are scanning everything on high resolution. Once we are done, we will put them all in acid-free albums, to protect them as much as possible from now on. I have to admit, although it takes me away from my work for 10 or 15 hours a week, it is enjoyable work - it's like reading a story (or watching a movie), except the characters in it are your own flesh and blood. I am particularly fascinated with my maternal grandmother's side of the family - where the Swan name came from - so my favorites are the photos of her in her youth.

At any rate, I am taking this week one project at a time, so I will blog again when I come up for air.

Labels: family, freelancing, goals, miscellaneous

Publishing my article in Writers Weekly earned me a lot of emails, guestbook entries, and other attention. I have to admit this felt rather nice - most of these people assumed I was wildly successful, and more than just a few sought my approval. However, I also got a number of highly amusing emails from would-be writers who wanted me to confirm their delusions of grandeur.

One such writer wrote to me to tell me how she had also always felt wrongly discouraged from being a writer. Okay - that I can understand. She also talked about how she dreamed of being a world-famous novelist. I gave her what I thought was some perfectly sound advice for achieving her dream: start small. Most of today's successful novelists started out publishing short stories, newspaper articles, or anything else that allowed them to make a reliable income writing and earn a name for themselves. I told her the more you publish, the easier it is to publish more, so start with the easy stuff.

Her response was rather hoity-toity. I had the distinct impression that she thought of herself as a real writer, and was talking down to me. She started out by telling me,

It gives me great honor to inform you that I have completed my first suspense-thriller. It is a novel that took six years to finish, and I am currently searching for a literary agent... I feel confident that an agent will see my raw God-given talent, which has been polished from my education, and give this first-time author a chance.

Wow, is she in for a shock. I wonder how she'll handle her first dozen or so rejections.

She concludes her email with this unbelievable statement:

I strive to reach nothing but perfection as I compose each inspiring, meticulous word. Hopefully, after people read my thought-provoking words, they will view life rather differently and contribute toward the betterment of mankind.

The last statement in particular reminds me of the kinds of things you hear out of beauty pagent contestants, each with Barbie's smile pasted on her lips.

Another would-be writer wrote to me asking for advice on starting his career. He started out by asking - no, demanding:

What are the proper channels a writer needs to seek to become a high-paid writer? Does one need credentials? Define credentials? Out of the choices of having a book published, working on a team, writing for a paper, blogging, or movie screenplays....what's the best one?

He then continued on to describe his disappointment that his writing hadn't been "discovered" via MySpace. (That part made me laugh quite a bit. Does he think there are talent scouts out there combing MySpace for the next Stephen King?) Finally, he explained his goals as a never-been-published writer:

I realize there are several routes I can take to make a name for myself, but the only one that reall [sic] appeals to me, is either 1) getting a book published and/or 2) being part of a creative team writing for a movie or T.V. show that's already made a name for itself.

And therein lies the rub...

This guy also thinks he is not just going to rise straight to the top, but start at the top. I tried to explain to him the natural order of things, but I don't think he understood (or appreciated) my advice, because I never heard back from him.

Although it might seem like I'm making fun of these people (okay, I am, but only a little), I'm really posting about this for a couple of very good reasons. For one thing, I think other already-established writers will see the humor in a bunch of wannabes being rather too big for their britches.

However, I am also posting this because it reminds me of who I - and probably every other published writer - was when I was just a dreamer and a wannabe myself. Back in high school, when I wrote whole novels only to stuff them in a drawer because I so feared editing, I too thought that becoming a writer was my destiny. And in retrospect, I think I was right, but only because I got myself here. Writers aren't born or discovered; they achieve their dreams at the price of their blood and sweat and tears. And although I've only traveled a short distance upon this path, I am proud of every single step I have taken.

As for the betterment of mankind... Well, it's quite enough for me right now to know that right now, somewhere in the world, someone is reading words I was paid to write.

Labels: becoming a writer, diatribes, freelancing, funnies, goals, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

Happy New Year's to everyone!

It seems a good occasion to reminisce about the past year. I am happy to report that I achieved both of my New Year's resolutions for 2006: to publish a piece of fiction, and to start work on a novel. In fact, I went beyond the original resolutions: I published two short stories, and wrote a whole novel.

Encouraged by my luck with 2006's resolutions, I have formed a few more for 2007. They are:

1. To revise my NaNoWriMo novel and get it ready for submitting,

2. To submit my NaNoWriMo novel to at least one publisher during 2007,

3. To start work on my next novel,

and

4. To double my freelance income in 2007.

The first two resolutions I am hoping to fulfill during the early months of 2007, followed soon after by the third. In fact, I am hoping to write two novels in 2007 - one by November and another during November, when I do NaNoWriMo again.

As for my income - my main goal is to start making enough extra a month that I can afford (among other things) to bring Panama out here in the spring or early summer. Stabling a horse in the Denver Metro area is expensive, and although I could find less expensive stables by putting him a 45-60 minute drive away from me, I want Panama close enough so that I can visit him and work with him daily. He'll be almost two years old by then, and I will need to work with him a great deal in order to make up for the lack of attention and training he has had so far. I don't want to have to worry about just barely squeaking by each month, either, which is why I want to double my income rather than simply making enough more each month to pay the stabling bills.

Well, there you have it - my goals for the New Year. If you would like to share yours, feel free to comment to this post. Best of luck to all my readers in 2007!

Labels: editing, freelancing, goals, holidays, my horse Panama, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing, plain ol' fun, publishing

A year ago today, I was just starting my career as a full-time freelance writer. My last day at my technical writing job was October 21, 2005.

A lot has happened in one year of freelancing. I believe I've come a long way. A year ago, I had never:

* earned more than about $25 for an article
* published any fiction
* been published in a magazine or a newspaper
* interviewed anyone for an article
* written a press release
* written test questions
* ghostwritten anything
* kept a personal blog
* introduced myself as a freelance writer

Now, I can proudly say that I have done all those things! I've achieved more in the past year than I had dreamed I would - I thought it would take longer to find any degree of success, let alone a steady income. In fact, I may have already found my way back to my original writing dream - to be a novelist - depending on how NaNoWriMo pans out.

Thinking back on the past year, I'm very, very, pleased. To all those people who thought I couldn't do this - I've proved otherwise.

Labels: freelancing, goals, NaNoWriMo 2006, novel writing